


Alive

by rideswraptors



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: AU Jyn & Cassian Live, Alternative Universe- Future fic, F/M, Fluffy smuffy, I still hate myself for getting obsessed with them, It could have been such a beautiful world, it's a bit of nonsense really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 03:03:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11221938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rideswraptors/pseuds/rideswraptors
Summary: Jyn Erso wakes up in the med bay on Yavin IV and meets a stowaway.Wistful cuteness from there on out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's just a bit of nonsense really. I found it in a folder...

Jyn opened her eyes slowly, adjusting to the bright light. She felt heavy and hazy. Sluggish. Her head was on fire but her hands were numb. Empty stomach. Dry throat.

 _Alive_.

She was alive, she thought, sitting up very slowly. She’d survived Scarif. And she was on a cot with blankets, engulfed in the smell of soap and bacta.

 _Alive_.

Jyn sat up completely straight and let her eyes focus. There was someone perched on a stool at the end of her cot. A young girl, maybe thirteen, with a long blonde braid, ratty clothes, and goggles on her head. She had a mess hall tray full of food perched on her lap and she ate too quickly for someone who had regular meals. Jyn cleared her throat, trying to speak, but all that come out was a gruff mumble. The girl tossed her a water canteen, which hit the bed before Jyn could catch it. She raised it in appreciation and drank enough to get her speech back. Too much too soon could kill you.

“Where am I?” Jyn asked quietly.

“Yavin IV.”

“Rebel base,” she mumbled to herself.

“You got it,” the girl answered cheekily, winking at her before biting off half of a protein bar. Apple flavored from the looks of it. Jyn couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a real apple. Rapid quick, Jyn looked the girl over, skinny, dirty, at least three knives but no blaster. Sturdy boots, thick coat, all of it ill-fitting. Jyn rolled her eyes and took a long drink of water.

“Rebels know they got a stowaway hanging around?” In response, the girl went ramrod straight, eyes bugged out. Jyn wanted to laugh, but her ribs hurt too badly. Instead, she leaned back against the pillows. “Your shirt’s from Coruscant, and it’s a man’s and way too big for you. Stolen. That scarf though, that’s from Naboo, good for rain, not so good for cold weather. Stolen. Those boots though? Those fit you. Sturdy, meant to last a lifetime. Means they’re probably yours, and I know that pattern anywhere. Daxam IV. That where you from?” she asked quietly.

“Ho- _how_?” the girl asked, dropping her protein bar and unfolding her legs to lean in.

Jyn snorted, “It’s my job to know things like that.” She dropped her head against the pillow. “And I traveled a lot when I was your age.”

“What’s your name?”

Jyn cocked a brow, “What’s yours?” The girl frowned, looking suspicious. And that did make Jyn laugh.

“Are you gonna turn me in?”

“Nope,” Jyn answered, wincing from pain, but mostly stiffness. “Wouldn’t even know who to turn you in to.” She let out a shaky breath. “Besides, smart kid like you? You’d disappear before I even found somebody.”

“How you know I’m smart? Maybe I’m some stupid kid…”

She snorted again. “I don’t know too many stupid kids who hide out in med bays to avoid security details.” The girl bit her lip and Jyn shrugged. “Like I said. Smart. I’m Jyn, by the way.”

The girl froze up again. “Jyn? Jyn Erso?”

“That’s me. And how do you know that name?”

The girl put her tray aside and clambered onto the end of the cot. “All of the guys around here have been talking about you and some captain. They said you and a bunch of guys stole stuff from the Imps and that you were the only two survivors.”

“That right?” she asked softly. Only _two_?

She nodded eagerly. “They’re saying you got out of Scarif before the Empire destroyed it with their death ray. Is that true? Is that what happened?” Her brown eyes were wide and eager to hear some heroic tale of victory over the Empire. Daxam IV. It was, and had been for some time, a war zone. If the people didn’t freeze or starve to death from lack of resources, then they were killed in the crossfire.

Jyn merely shrugged. “You’d know better than me, kid. I just woke up.”

She gasped, “You don’t remember?!”

“I remember plenty. Dunno how it ended though.” She looked around. “The hell do I have to do to get some food around here?” She reached for the call button and the girl froze up again. “You’ll wanna get under the cot, kid.” The girl bristled indignantly, making Jyn scowl. “They’ll send in droids? Who can read heat signatures?” She still looked confused. “Listen, if you hide over there, the droid will sense a foreign heat source and find you. If you’re under my cot, they’ll think I’ve got a fever or something and give me some bacta patches or whatever.”

The girl stood up from the cot. “That won’t hurt you?”

“Doubtful. I’ve probably got an infection somewhere.” She gave a curt nod and slid under the cot as Jyn hit the call button. As suspected, a medical droid was sent in to attend to Jyn’s needs until a medic could be summoned. It poked and prodded and was annoyingly clinical, but at least he brought her food and another blanket. Damn med bay was always freezing. Made her miss Jehda. When the droid left, Jyn called out to the girl.

“Hey kid? Think you could do me a favor?” She slid out from under the cot, curious but hesitant. “I’ll let you camp out in here with me and then in my bunk when I get out. Just need you to swipe me a datapad.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Jyn considered it done when the girl shot from the room without making a hint of noise. She sighed contentedly while munching on her protein. Kid was Jyn 2.0.

And just as Jyn would have done herself, the girl brought back a datapad (not to mention more protein snacks) in less than 10 minutes. Mighty impressive. She dumped it all unceremoniously on Jyn’s lap and made herself comfortable on the cot, apparently waiting for another assignment or to see what Jyn was using it for. With a smirk, Jyn logged into the Alliance database and searched quickly for Cassian’s personnel file. Not that there was much in it. Intelligence officers generally didn’t have much in their files for the sake of security, but since he was in critical condition in the med bay, his medical records were complete.

He was still in the bacta tank. Had been for two weeks now. _Two weeks_. Third degree burns, broken leg, fractured pelvis, six broken ribs, punctured lung, broken humerus and clavicle, severe concussion. The list continued with updates and protocols he needed to be put through before release.

The girl let out a long, impressed whistle, “How did you do that?”

“Do what?” Jyn muttered, swiping through the photographs of Cassian’s cataloged injuries. Hers must have been relatively similar, except his were more in line with a nasty fall.

“Hack into that datapad. I swiped it off a First Lieutenant.”

Jyn rolled her eyes, “My mentor taught me a long time ago.” They weren’t taking him out of the tank for another week.

“Can you teach me?”

“Sure,” she answered absently.

“Is he your boyfriend?”

Jyn was jolted out of her concentration, “What? No! Why would you ask that?”

“Because you’re staring awfully hard at the picture of his legs.”

She scowled, “I’m looking at his injuries, kid. Bit hard to sexualize a bent leg covered in blood.” She shoved the picture in the girl’s face teasingly. “Seee?”

“Ewwww!” she squealed, grabbing the datapad to look at it better. “How did it even get like that?!”

“He fell,” Jyn said quietly. The girl sobered immediately.

“On Scarif?” she asked. Jyn nodded. “Oh. So, it was really bad, huh?”

“Bad doesn’t cover it, kid.”

“Loriann.”

“Huh?”

“Loriann, that’s my name.”

Jyn smiled, at her while she flipped through Cassian’s pictures. “That’s a nice name.”

“It was my mom’s,” she said absently. “Is he a soldier?”

“Why?”

“Look at his abs….”

“Okay,” Jyn said, snatching the datapad from her hands despite her protests. “Nah, nah, nah. Captain Andor’s wounds are not for entertainment.” Loriann watched her closely as she packed the datapad away, biting her bottom lip with a small grin.

“Sorry.” She squirmed in her seat. “You care about him a lot, huh?”

“Yeah, we’ve, uh…we’ve been through a lot.”

“I ca-an… _check_ on him for you?” She froze. “ _Ifyouwant_.”

Jyn smiled gently, thinking that Loriann was just like she used to be. Eager to please and ready to prove herself no matter what the price to her person. So Jyn made a decision right there.

“That would be nice. But we’ll figure out the shift schedule first, all right? And then you can check on him a couple times a day until I can move a bit better. Then I’ll do it. I don’t want you getting caught.”

Loriann sat up straight, head tilted, “Really?”

“Really.”

Loriann nodded with some satisfaction and opened another protein bar. “Cool.” 

*

“Need your help,” Jyn grunted, swinging her legs to the side of the bed.

Rian pushed out from under her cot on the creeper board she’d swiped from the hangar, candy hanging out of her mouth. She looked eager. Poor kid got so bored during the day.

“Sup?”

“Need to get to Captain Andor’s room.”

“He’s on lockdown, honeydew.”

Jyn scowled, getting shakily to her feet. “I know, you twit. Go create a diversion.”

Rian sat up, arms on her knees, and her head tilted like an overcurious owl, “He’s waking up today, ain’t he?”

Jyn didn’t answer. “Diversion, Lori.  Ten seconds ago.” And she hobbled out into the hallway.

She didn’t have to wait in the doorway for long, Rian was excellent at causing benign chaos. From the sounds of it, some kind of fire extinguisher attached to a rogue droid. Effective, if messy. Finding Cassian’s room wasn’t much of a problem, and she slipped in completely unnoticed. He wasn’t in the bacta tank like he was in the datapad pictures. Instead, he was laid out on a cot, color in his cheeks, breathing evenly as he slept. His hair was damp from being washed and he was thoroughly tucked with insulating blankets. Jyn smiled a little in relief, and moved to settle into a chair at his bedside. Her body seemed to relax being near him again, and no wonder, considering the nightmares.

Truth be told, Scarif wasn’t the worst near death experience she’d ever had. She’d lost more people for much, much less. And she’d seen worse things happen to planets. Jehda, case in point. At least Scarif was mostly empty. No children, anyway. She wondered if Cassian would feel the same.

“Are we dead?” a harsh voice rasped from next to her. His lips barely moved, but Jyn thought she’d never heard a sweeter sound in her life. She laughed through a sob.

“No, Cassian, we’re alive.”

Cassian groaned, his face scrunching in discomfort, “Cause if we’re dead, this is bullshit.” Jyn chuckled quietly, reaching for his arm, pressing a kiss to it. She dropped her forehead to his bicep.

“Nope. We made it.” She sat up again to see him watching her, eyes bright and focused. “Hey,” she said quietly. He tried to respond, but started coughing. Jyn got him sitting up properly and gave him some water. They wouldn’t have taken him out of the tank if fluids weren’t safe. Unfortunately, Jyn could read the questions in his eyes, knew where his mind was going and why. She’d done the same thing, after all.

“No,” she answered him gently, setting the glass aside. “We’re the only ones.”

“The plans?”

“En route here as we speak.”

“En route?” he grunted. She waved him off, indicating they could discuss it later. “How long?”

“Three and a half weeks.”

“ _Fuck_.”

“Tell me about it, I got up and moving almost two weeks ago, lazy ass.”

He snorted, a smirk gracing his lips, and that was enough to have her smiling at him.

“I thought we were dead for sure this time.”

“You passed out. Had to haul your lazy ass to the ship.”

“I’ll endeavor to be more useful next time.”

“I’d appreciate it.”

There was a long silence between them where they just looked at one another, thinking, reveling, she couldn’t really say. Cassian was the one to break it by reaching for her hand, and Jyn let him take it, gripping his firmly. She brought it to her lips and kissed it, holding their hands there.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he whispered.

“Wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

“Stay?”

Jyn made herself comfortable, and promptly fell asleep.

*

Cassian, however, did not. He was groggy, for sure, but he couldn’t make himself fall asleep when Jyn was so real and so close.  His dreams had been aimless, colorless, and full of Jyn. He’d been damn certain that they were both dead, that all he would have left were the faint impressions, her smile, the smell of her fear, the sad look in her eyes. Hers was the first face he’d seen when he died.

Hers was the first face he’d seen when he came alive again.

And it was the only good news she could give him. Their crew dead. The plans had been stolen. And who knows how much was lost in the process of stealing them back. Even his sluggish mind could foresee the terrible possibilities. Jyn’s presence was the one bright spot in all of this. He’d lost everything. Again. But here she was, his beacon of hope, undeterred. He’d suffered greater losses for less gains. But this stung, this felt more like failure than victory. So instead of succumbing to what he was sure would be hazy, blood-filled nightmares, he kept his focus on Jyn. She still sat in a chair next to him, but she was bent over him, head pillowed by her arms on his stomach, one hand drifting up his torso closer to his heart. Almost like she was keeping track of his pulse. Cassian kept one hand covering hers, and another on her head, playing with her hair. He remembered that his little sister had always liked that…Aurelia. He hadn’t thought about little Aurelia in ages. Not during waking hours, anyway. He’d spent years kicking himself for not keeping better watch of her. No. _No_ , he shook the thoughts from his head and focused on Jyn.

She seemed to be in perfect health, though how was a mystery to him since he felt like utter shit. But Cassian had started to believe that Jyn was probably much, much stronger than anyone he’d ever met. Her breathing was steady, though the lines on her face were tight and her hands clenched into his med bay gown. He was contemplating how long he should let her sleep when Kes Dameron walked in. He stopped at the door, leaning against the jam.

He and Dameron went way back, having both been brought up in the Rebellion. Difference was, Cassian lost his home and his family before joining. Kes joined because his family forced him to. They’d bonded together over their love of flying, even if Cassian’s life took another direction. They watched each other carefully now. Kes had been out in the field when he and Jyn left for Scarif. If he’d been there, this would be a very different story.

“You look like shit, brother.”

“And you’re getting fat, Dameron.” They both laughed, though Cassian’s was more subdued, as not to disturb Jyn. His attention was drawn back to her when she snuffled against his shirt, nudging her head into his limp hand. He put it back in place more firmly, thumb stroking her skull.

“So this is the infamous Jyn Erso, eh?” Kes said quietly. “I expected something…more…”

“Big?” Cassian supplied.

“Vicious,” he countered. “The others seem to think she’s some kind of mythic super soldier.” This made Cassian huff a laugh.

“She is,” he used more of his fingers to massage her head, dragging them through the thick strands of her hair. “She’s just tiny.” And tired, he thought. Probably hadn’t slept much, waiting for him and worrying. “But don’t tell her I said that. She’d geld me.”

Kes crossed his arms and shook his head. “What have you gotten yourself into, Andor? I leave for three weeks and come back to find that not only did you disobey direct orders from the Council, but you took a rogue squadron into enemy territory on the word of a criminal, and an Imperial scientist’s daughter no less.”

Cassian scoffed, “Spare me the riot act.”

“Someone oughta read it to you.”

“Are the third degree burns and broken spine not enough?”

“You’ve had worse.”

“So have you.”

They watched each other for a long moment, trying to communicate silently, force each other to see the opposing side. It wouldn’t work. For as long as they’d known each other, it had never worked.

“She worth it?” Kes asked softly.

“More than,” Cassian gave his answered without hesitation. Kes’ eyebrows shot right up, even though he was probably accustomed to Cassian’s unwavering, black-and-white opinions of the world. His intensity. “I don’t expect you to understand—”

“I do,” Kes interrupted quickly. “Shara’s pregnant.”

“Pregnant?” Cassian repeated quietly, his chest tightening. “That’s amazing, Kes, I— That’s great, congratulations.” The Pathfinder shifted his weight, looking uncomfortable. He’d understand when he spoke to Jyn, when he saw the way she moved others.

“I’m glad you’re okay, man.”

“Me, too. Give my love to Shara,” he said, very obviously aware that he was about to leave. Soldiers didn’t like hanging around the medical bay. Bad ju-ju, they said. You paid your respects and you got out. That’s probably why Kes was so discomfited by Jyn’s ability to sleep there. Kes, walking to the door, said his goodbyes and promised to do so.

Cassian was glad to have seen him, but he wasn’t sorry to see him go. He settled in more comfortably against the pillows, gently dislodging Jyn from her position. She bolted upright, startled and her hand reaching for a weapon she didn’t have. Well, he thought she didn’t have one, couldn’t know for sure.

“Hey,” he said gently, reaching for her, “It’s okay, c’mere.” Jyn passed herself easily into his hands, helping him guide her onto the cot to lie down next to him.

“Don’t wanna hurt you,” she mumbled, trying to navigate his injuries. “Big, dumb idiot.” She was so disgruntled by being woken up that he could have laughed. Instead, he nudged her off balance so that she collapsed against him, stolidly ignored the pain, and clutched her to him tight enough to be comfortable. He let out a pleased hum at how easily she fit against him, how warm she was, how sweet she smelled ( _nothing like their last moments on Scarif, dead, bleeding things_ ).

“Won’t happen,” he murmured back. Jyn pressed herself fully against him, along his side, and he kissed the top of her head in response. “They told me to get some sleep. You’re helping me sleep.”

She snorted, “Idiot.”

“I don’t know,” Cassian answered sleepily, “I’ve got droids waiting on me hand and foot, full turn down service, woman in my bed…”

“Shut it, Andor.”

“Body heat’s not bad either.”

“I will end you.”

“Only if you—” He was cut off by her reaching up to press a hard kiss to his mouth. It was quick and uncertain, but made her point. She flicked her eyes up to his, confident even as Cassian’s cheeks flushed and his body shifted to accommodate more of her.

“Sleep, Captain, we both need it.”

“You’re staying, right?” he whispered, eyes still locked on hers. She rolled her own and flopped onto the cot, not bothering to answer.  Cassian smiled, pressed another kiss to her head, and fell asleep too.

*

“Can’t believe you brought in another stray.”

Jyn picked at his hash browns, and smacked his hand away from her peaches. He feigned looking mortally wounded.

“Technically,” she threatened him with her fork and he pouted, “she found me. _And_ you’re the one with the stray-bringing-in track record. I’m the stray. You’re the stray-keeper.”

“That makes no sense,” he answered blankly.

“K-2.”

“Useful.”

“Bohdi.”

“Life endangering but useful,” he conceded between bites.

“Chirruit and Baze.”

“Shockingly useful.”

“Me.”

“Ehhh—” She thwacked his arm. “Hey! I just woke up from a coma.”

“Two _days_ ago!”

“Still,” he grumbled, settling back against his pillows. “We have to figure out what to do with her. Eventually someone will notice you have a blonde shadow.” 

“I’m sitting _right here_.”

“Could turn her in.”

“That would be the responsible thing to do.”

“Or send her out on another ship.”

“We’d have to choose a decent planet.”

“I think I’d feel guilty—”

“Hey!” Rian shouted, standing up furiously. “I’m still in the room you know! You could at least ask me what _I_ want!”

Jyn tried to stifle her snicker, but failed when she saw Cassian twinkle his dark eyes at the infuriated young woman with a bland expression on his face.

“Ah. So you are.” He set his tray aside. “Loriann, you do know that you have put Miss Erso and myself in quite a difficult position…”

“I know, but—”

“We are not on the best of terms with superior officers and leaders within the rebel forces.”

“But you’re _heroes_.”

“We went rogue, Loriann, against direct orders and at great cost to the Alliance, too. Not everyone will trust us again so easily.”

“But—!”

“No buts!” Jyn snapped. “Cassian’s right. We have to figure out how best to keep you safe, so you’re going to do exactly as you’re told. Got it, soldier?”

Rian sank down into her chair, utterly resigned, “Got it.”

Jyn caught Cassian’s quick smirk from the corner of her eye.

“On the other hand…the Alliance can always make use of a younger agents in Intelligence.” Rian perked up. “But you need clearance!” he said, cutting off her excitement. “And extensive training!”

“Yes, yes,yesyesyesyes—!”

“And you’ll have to start from the bottom just like all the other new recruits—oooph!” Cassian was cut off by Rian launching herself from her chair to hug him tightly around the middle.

“Thank you thank you thank you! I won’t let you down, I _promise_.”


	2. Chapter 2

After both Jyn and Cassian were released and cleared for duty, they produced Rian as a new recruit, and she was immediately sent over to her respective bunk with the other new women who’d signed on. She didn’t much like all the yelling and having to listen to people all the time, but she was fitting in just fine. Cassian put in the recommendation that she be trained specifically for Intelligence work with no special treatment. Rian said her superiors picked on her all the time, called her out, pushed her harder than anyone else. From the bright gleam in her eyes and the way her lithe little body was fleshing out, Jyn could tell she was thriving under the attention.

Cassian was back in the thick of things, coordinating Intelligence movement and debriefings. The whole base was in an uproar over Princess Leia’s return with an unlikely team of rescuers. Jyn didn’t trust the smuggler and the wookie, but the boy? He seemed…earnest. And sad. And not a little lost. They were saying he’d been travelling with a Jedi, an old man who’d sacrificed his life to help them escape with the princess. Jyn found her eyes following him on more than one occasion, tracking his movements. He certainly didn’t move any differently than any other man she’d met, and yet there was something _different_ about him. Decidedly strange. It had Jyn reaching for her necklace, disconcerted. In those moments, Cassian would eye her strangely, drift closer in a protective gesture. Jyn allowed it, stepped into the shadow of that protection, let the oddness roll off of her.

Now that they had the plans for the Death Star, they were putting a team of pilots together to blow the thing to bits. There was an energetic buzzing throughout the base, excitement, anticipation. But as Jyn listened to Mon Mothma and the others detail the mission, Cassian at her side, she felt a sharp pang of longing for Bodhi. Bodhi, who would have been a prime candidate to finish this thing for them. A symbol. But Bodhi was dead, and for the first time since she’d woken to realize her friends were dead, she felt his absence acutely. Wordlessly, Cassian snatched up her hand, not looking at her, not waiting for her reaction. His grip was tight on her hand, and Jyn felt a lump in her throat, felt it choke her as the tears threatened to fall.

“We don’t have to stay for this,” Cassian muttered, his lips barely moving as they listened to the call for volunteers. “They don’t need us for this.”

“But we—” Cassian didn’t even need to cut her off, her throat was too dry and too tight.

“Have done enough for now.” He released her hand, slid his arm around her waist and turned into her, speaking against her hair. “ _Vamonos_ , Jyn, let’s go.” She felt the tears well up as Luke Skywalker volunteered to fly, Kes Dameron right behind him. But Cassian was already ushering her out into the corridor, unnoticed as more and more rebel fighters volunteered, the cheering raising to a deafening level. Jyn hardly paid attention to where Cassian led her, her vision blurred and her head swam in her emotional confusion. She could feel her pulse in her neck beat wildly out of turn, too fast, too unsteady. Then her breathing faltered. _Panic attack_. Vaguely, she registered that Cassian was all but holding her up, that he was trying to get her to focus. But she couldn’t, she couldn’t find him in the chaos, couldn’t hear him over the dull roar in her ears.

Then her body was slammed against a cold metal wall, hands on her face, and Cassian….

 _Cassian_.

His mouth covered hers quick and rough, precluding any argument or second thoughts. Jyn gasped in surprise, and Cassian didn’t hesitate to take advantage, deepening the kiss and drinking her down like a man in the desert. Jyn melted, arms winding around his waist, pushing back against him, riding out his onslaught. _Fuck, he’s good at this_ , she thought inanely as he sucked her bottom lip between his own and clenched his fingers in her hair to angle her how he wanted.

He had her responsive and gasping and wanting him closer when he jerked his mouth away from her, panting heavily, eyes dark and hungrier than she’d ever seen them. Jyn felt that heat in her belly coil and she could help but follow when he pulled away, not ready to relinquish her hold just yet. Her hands gripped his shirt tightly, her leg lifted up against the outside of his. Not that Cassian was actually moving away from her. In fact, all he’d done was put an inch or two between their mouths. His forehead was tipping towards hers already and she could feel the unsteady heaving of his chest against her.

“Heard you could stop a panic attack if you, uh, held your breath for a moment,” he explained gruffly. His voice was low and strained. Not so different from when he’d first woken up.

“Right,” she breathed, trying to get a hold of herself. “That—that makes sense.”

“You were going to pass out.”

“Sure.” Logically, Jyn knew he was probably right, and his quick thinking had saved her from embarrassing herself in the middle of a corridor. That would have been a fun conversation with the medical droids. But all she could think in the moment was that Cassian was a wonderful focal point, a wonderfully _warm_ focal point, to hold onto when her thoughts and feelings were so scattered. The chaos was quickly subsiding, the dull roar a quiet background buzz in the face of her new fixation. Jyn tracked his movements as he leaned in again, not quite kissing her, but lips nearly touching. His hands cradled the back of her head, and she vaguely realized that although her back had hit the wall, her head had not. She knocked her forehead against his, flattening her hands to run them further up along his back, under his jacket.

“ _Mejor?_ Better?” he murmured against her lips. Jyn kissed him softly, nodding, and widened her stance just enough to get him closer. She could only hope that he’d directed them towards an empty, discreet corner where no one would walk by and interrupt them. But, after all, the base was crowded and she didn’t much care anyway. She trusted his judgement.

“It will all be over soon,” he kept on, pressing light kisses to her lips, but Jyn just shook her head, letting herself fall into the cradle of his hands. She looked up at him, remembering how she’d memorized the lines of his face on Scarif right when she thought they were going to die. She remembered his face better than her homeworld now, better than Saw, better than her parents. It was like his face was a key into unlocking everything from before.

“It’s only just starting,” she told him thickly, tears welling up again. “I can—I can see it an-and—” But he hushed her, pressing kisses to her cheeks and forehead, letting her cry. The dreams came rushing back. Another weapon, another war, more lives lost. Leia. Luke. A face in the dark. A familiar face, like the smuggler’s but not. A damaged black mask. Jyn blinked it away, shaking her head against the onslaught of images from her nightmares. She pulled back again to look in Cassian’s eyes, eyes that watched her all through those dreams.

“We’ll win,” she whispered, “But we’ll lose.”  He didn’t respond at first, just cupped her cheeks, used his thumbs to wipe her tears away.

“Sounds like us.”

“We can’t leave.”

“I know.”

“And we can’t let them take Rian away from us.”

“I know.”

“It sounds insane, but—”

“Jyn?” he ducked, catching her gaze again, giving her a point to focus on again. “ _Yo s_ _é,_ I know. I dream it, too.”

Melting again, Jyn pushed up to kiss him soundly, pressing herself against him only to be pressed back harder against the wall. She swiped her tongue against his lips, demanding entrance, and thoroughly ravished him once he did so. Cassian drank down the force of her, matching her pace but letting her lead. It didn’t take long for Jyn to reach her hands up to his shoulders, for her to move her leg up his straining for his hip. She felt his hand graze down her torso, sliding along her belly to her love handle, drifting back to the curve of her ass and under her thigh. Jyn grumbled her protest when he broke their kiss just long enough to lift her against him, mouth immediately finding hers again, and in a move she missed due to her preoccupation with tasting every inch of his mouth, backed them into a room she hadn’t noticed before.

His room. His private room. Jyn shared a space with four other women, so she didn’t get much privacy. But Cassian was an officer, an Intelligence officer at that, so he had a private space away from the other divisions. Jyn nearly sobbed in relief when he laid her out on the bed and climbed over her, the pressure of his body weight so good and welcome that every inch of her skin protested the clothing barrier between them. He was whispering to her in a language she didn’t catch, his hands working her clothing off and then his in alternation as she pressed kisses to his face and throat and strained up against him. She wasn’t being particularly helpful with the process, but Jyn didn’t particularly _care_. He got their shirts off, one of the last barriers between them and ducked down to kiss her thoroughly. Jyn arched up against him, reveling in the skin contact, loving the way it soothed her bones and lit up her blood at the same time.

“That’s it, _querida_ ,” he crooned at her, nosing at her ear, biting the sensitive skin and soothing it with his tongue as he made his way down the column of her throat. “Let me feel you.”

“Cassian—”

“ _Dejame tocarte_.” His hand drifted down, tracing her curves and dancing over her thigh until he darted in between them, cupping her center. Jyn arched up, a hand shooting down to clamp over his, and Cassian caught her lips to drink down her gasp. Her hands struggled to get him closer as he worked her clit with his clever fingers, she kissed him senselessly, accepting his advancing, taking the suggestive rhythm of their kisses as the promise of what was to come. She moved tight against him, muscles stretching and straining, overwhelmed by how out of control she felt. Overwhelmed by how much she didn’t care as long as it was Cassian with her. He kept talking her through it, seemingly filthy things in that pretty language she didn’t know. It all sounded beautiful and dirty coming out of his mouth, especially since he had three fingers inside her and his tongue dancing around her ear.

It took only moments for her to come, the white hot bolts of pleasure-pain shooting down her spine and to her toes and fingers. It flipped every switch in her brain, overriding all common sense and decency, to the point where she didn’t recognize the words or sounds coming out of her mouth. Barely recognized the frantic way she moved against him to ride the feeling to completion. Cassian kissed everything he could reach, her face, lips, chin, and neck. He drifted down to latch onto her breasts, spending a good deal of time there while she came down from her high. Jyn just cupped his neck and head, stroking his hair, shivering as the aftershocks rolled through her.

“Cassian, _please_ ,” she rasped out, tightening her legs around him. He laved at the sensitive skin under her breasts, fingers gripping her legs so hard she might bruise.

“Please, what, _querida_?” he teased, his breath tickling her overheated skin. Jyn tugged at his hair, urging him up toward her again, and he didn’t hesitate bringing their mouths together in an open, messy slide. Cassian hummed in encouragement when she moaned, hauled a leg up over his hip to fit more comfortably with her, pressed the hot and sure sign of his excitement against her center. Jyn gasped, dropping her head back to the pillow from the lovely pressure. Cassian followed, pressing wet, loving kisses along her exposed throat, nipping at her jaw and chin.

“What do you want, _Estrella_? _Háblame. Dejame escucharte_.”  By then, Jyn was babbling incomprehensibly, arching herself up to meet him, trying to force him to comply. He chuckled, low and deep, doing everything she asked, following her orders, and then he finally pushed into her, seating himself fully within her.

Neither bothered checking in with one another, they moved together immediately, fucking hard and fast. Cassian may have tried to slow down, but Jyn didn’t let him. She moved by instinct, clenching and pushing up as he thrust down. Cassian spoke in his rapid native tongue, probably swearing, and grinned like a madman above her. Jyn couldn’t get a word out herself, far too preoccupied with pushing him over the edge, her hands always reaching for a better grip, her legs urging him deeper. When he changed up the angle, grinding himself against her center, Jyn flew apart, clenching her teeth as her release burned her up. And Cassian wasn’t too far behind, the force of his thrusts pushing her up the bed as he struggled to finish. He pushed and pushed into her, his hips stuttering, his voice gruff and growling in her ear. Jyn just clenched around him, milking his release, hands moving soothingly up and down his spine.

She thought for sure that he would pull out and flop to the side, as most men did. But instead, he kept himself seated fully inside her, cupped her thighs, and rolled them so that she was spread out over the top of him. His arms came up around her, crushing her down to him, as his lips sought whatever skin they could reach. Jyn writhed on top of him, tossing her hair to the side so she could see his face as she kissed a path to his ear and nuzzled against him, her mind settled for the first time in weeks.

“I’m with you, Jyn,” he whispered, “All the way.”

They fell asleep that way, tangled up in each other, holding on tight to the only thing that felt solid and real while the universe waged war around them.

Solid. Here. Together.

_Welcome home._

*

If Jyn was expecting Cassian to continue on as before, close but circling while in public, then she was dead wrong. If anything, Cassian continued his circling, but continued it within her space. They were like magnets, drawn to each other when in the same room, and he didn’t keep his hands to himself either. He reached out for her shoulder, her elbow, her hip, her hands, the back of her neck; they sat thigh to thigh, arm to arm, angled toward one another, eyes seeking the other’s.

Jyn couldn’t boast the same physicality. Most men never got close enough to touch her a second time. But while she rarely reached out herself, she definitely didn’t mind moving close enough to be touched and held. More and more, she drifted voluntarily into his space, pulling his arm around her, dropping his hand on her lap. His touch was her constant, her focal point, the one thing that drowned out the constant hum of doubt in her head.

And the others were starting to notice.

During meetings, Cassian stubbornly sat or stood at her side, not allowing anyone else close enough. When she went to the rec room to talk with the others in her division, some women but mostly men, Cassian would seek her out, invade her space, sling an arm around her or slide a hand up the back of her shirt. Jyn scowled and rolled her eyes at him, but she never pulled away, and the other men who may have flirted with the idea of talking her up made themselves scarce.

Now, people were put off her by Cassian, that was for certain. They liked and respected Cassian too much to even rouse his suspicion of their behavior. The same could not be said of the women towards Jyn. Everyone still expected her to up and leave. She hadn’t fully signed on with the Rebellion yet, and many people called her loyalties into question. Cassian knew it was simply because she liked having an out, that she wasn’t totally comfortable having a fixed place in the world. He didn’t push it because she didn’t leave. That simple.

Women interested in Cassian didn’t seem to agree.

It was one of those rare nights when a good many of the Intelligence officers were on furlough, hanging around base. Jyn was in a heated argument with several of her infantry peers, going back and forth on the appeal of the Outer Rim. They’d all been drinking so much that she could hardly figure out who was arguing for which side anymore. In the back of her mind, she knew Cassian was nearby, mostly because her eyes frequently sought him out in a casual check-in move she’d gotten used to doing. However, she wasn’t paying much attention to the company he kept and what he was actually doing.

“Well _shit_ , lookit that,” Kes Dameron exclaimed between drinks. “That’s gotta be Mina, right?” he asked the man on his left, nodding in Cassian’s direction (which Jyn only knew because she’d just looked). She whipped her head around, following the trajectory to Cassian and locking in. There was a tall, blonde woman still in most of her gear, drinking next to and angling toward Cassian at the bar.

“Who’s she?” Jyn asked no one in particular.

“Intelligence. Deep. Don’t think I’ve seen her for like 3 years? She was always trying to get in the field with Andor, but he liked working alone with that droid.”

“That so?” she breathed, finishing her ale.

“Yep,” Dameron, popping the ‘p’ sound. Drunken idiot. She’d give Shara a play-by-play of everything he said the next morning (she’d laugh). Jyn felt herself flaming on as she watched this Mina-woman drop a heavy hand to Cassian’s shoulder and giggle like a moron. That was _it_. Jyn snatched a shot of something from the table, ignoring the original owner’s protest as she drank it down and got to her feet.

“Gentlemen, you’ll have to excuse me. I have business to attend to.” They cheered her on as she darted over, chanting her name with increasing fervor. She didn’t pay them any attention. Instead, her eyes narrowed to a fixated point on Cassian as she dodged through the crowd.

When she reached them, she slung an arm about his shoulders, effectively dislodging Mina’s hand from him, and swung about the other side to kiss him soundly. As she’d hoped, he was absolutely responsive, and didn’t hesitate sliding an arm around her waist. He was smirking when she pulled back.

“Well hello to you, too.” His arm tightened around her.

She bit her lip and smiled, “Hi. Who’s your friend?” Jyn nearly howled in victory at the sharp look on confusion on his face. She brought a hand up to his neck, thumb tracing over his jaw, waiting for a response, until she nodded toward the blonde behind.

“Oh! Right. Mina, Jyn, Jyn, Mina.”

“Hi,” Jyn said with a fake smile and then she refocused on Cassian. “Can we go? I’m bored.” He looked ready to protest that statement, raising a skeptical brow. Jyn usually insisted they stay as late as possible because she liked the atmosphere. So, she pulled out the big guns by dragging her hand down his chest and actually _pouting_. She knew that she had him when his eyes locked on her lips. “Please?” He nodded, obviously a little tipsy and leaning toward her again. “Say bye to Mina,” she crooned, grabbing his hand.

“Bye Mina,” he answered automatically, letting himself be pulled along, not looking back.

When Jyn passed her table where her friends still sat, they cheered again, whistling and laughing. _We are not worthy_! They shouted as she passed, toasting in her honor, she flipped them off spitting her tongue out. The men only laughed harder. Cassian finally caught up with his brain and was plastered to Jyn’s side, hands groping and nuzzling where he could reach.

“What’s that all about then?” he asked, licking a stripe along her neck as the cantina doors swooshed shut behind them.

“Haven’t the faintest idea,” she hummed, wrapping her arms around his neck to kiss him. He responded sloppily and eagerly, hands reaching down to grab her ass. It took them three times as long to get back to his bunk because they kept getting distracted and he kept pulling her into dark corners to ravish her. She came twice before they even got to the door.

“You were very rude to that woman back there,” she murmured against his lips when he picked her up to carry her to the bed. He tossed her down, following quickly with his head cocked in feigned confusion.

“What woman?”

Jyn laughed brightly and dragged his head down to kiss him again.

*

Cassian Andor was far from an idiot. He was perfectly aware of how people viewed his relationship with Jyn Erso. He knew he stood too close, hovered in her space when eyes lingered too long, and he damn well knew how jealous he could be. That hadn’t happened in a while, actually, the seething jealousy factor. Most of his partners didn’t stick around long enough for him to bother, but with Jyn? With Jyn, his gut clenched whenever someone got too close, whenever she smiled too long at them, when they laughed too loud at her probably not-funny joke. It was making him a little crazy.

And for a time, he’d honestly thought it was just him. That Jyn was just waiting for the next U-wing out of Yavin, that she thought him needy and clingy and too presumptuous. But then Mina showed up, a little drunk and a little handsy, and all of the sudden Jyn flared up like a Tattooine sand storm in high summer. Blew Mina right away, wiping away Cassian’s memories of any other woman so thoroughly that he couldn’t imagine sex before her.

Now, tangled up in bed with her, Cassian found himself amazed by her redoubled attentions, enthralled by the unprovoked, undiluted affection she poured on him. He thought for sure that he’d seen the brightest of her smiles, but the ones gracing her lips as she giggled underneath him were brighter still. He’d thought himself in love with her, but now…now everything was different.

They’d made love a few times before falling asleep, exhausted from long days and alcohol, but fully sated for the moment. Usually, Cassian would haul her up against him, hold her tight against him like a pillow. He preferred the contact, she typically didn’t mind either way. But this time she curled into his side, cuddled up against him like she had in the med bay that one night, head on his shoulder, hand over his heart, and legs tangled. Cassian, waking sooner than she did, smoothed back her hair, playing with the ends, and watched her sleep. Maybe it was creepy, but sleeping was one of the few postures Jyn took that wasn’t totally defensive. He had no knowledge of what she was like when she slept alone, but with him, she looked damn near peaceful.

“ _Qué te pasa, mi amor_?” he murmured into the dark of their room. She snuffled, nuzzled against him. But she must have sensed his wakefulness and blinked her eyes open sluggishly to look at him. Cassian smiled down at her and kissed the top of her head. “Sleep, _querida_.”

She snuffled again and sighed, settling more comfortably against him.

“Love you,” she muttered so quietly and so indistinctly that Cassian almost didn’t hear it. He almost missed it, her moment of pure sincerity, of vulnerability.

Cassian turned his head to speak against her head, knowing the vibrations of his voice would get through that thick skull of hers.

“ _Te amo más que a la vida misma, mujer. Y algún día lo creerás. Hasta entonces, dormir bien y soñar conmigo, mi amor. Estaré aquí cuando te despiertes_.”

The next morning, it was immediately obvious to Cassian that something has shifted in their dynamic. Jyn didn’t just accept him into her space as they walked to the mess, she actively pushed into his. She slid her arm through his, lingered close as she waited for him, eyes surveying their surroundings with heightened suspicion. Usually, she would sit across from him at the table, that morning, she sat down next to him, wrapping her ankle around his. She’d never been much of a morning person, but she’d always been willing to participate in the chatter of their tablemates. That morning, she stolidly ignored them, responding little, if at all, to their teasing. Their friends seemed to believe she was grossly hungover. Cassian knew for a fact that she could drink three times the amount she had the night before and still rise before dawn for a run without so much as a complaint. This was different. This was frayed edges. And those edges didn’t smooth down until Rian showed up, slamming her tray down too hard on the table and talking to Jyn a mile a minute.

Cassian felt her tension fade, saw her eyes soften, felt her tighten her grip around his ankle, felt her lean more heavily against his side. Rian was telling her about a late night training session with one of the other Intelligence officers, one of the women who’d stopped over before she was required back in the Core. Evidently, she’d heard all about Rian and her abilities, and wanted to see what she could do on the mat. If the rate and pitch of the girl’s voice was anything to go by, the session had gone remarkably well.

“That’s great, mami, we’re so proud of you,” Jyn crooned, smoothing Rian’s hair down.

Understanding crashed over Cassian like that damnable tidal wave on Scarif.

“How long before she put your butt on the mat?” Cassian teased, raising his brows at Rian. The girl scowled.

“A minute,” she insisted.

“Twenty seconds, I’d bet.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Well then I’ll just go ask her.”

Jyn put her hands up between them, “Enough, you two. _Coma, mami, tienes lecciones hoy_.”

 Cassian froze. Her pronunciation wasn’t particularly refined, but the message was there, and what’s more, Rian _understood_. The teenager rolled her eyes and dug into her meal without comment. Then Jyn turned back to her own as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

But the thing that disturbed Cassian the _most_ was everyone else’s complete non-reaction to the conversation between the two. They behaved as if it were perfectly common place, as if they spoke this way to each other every day. Conversation continued on around them, a buzz and a hum of normality engulfing him as he tried to focus the activity of eating and staring at Jyn in bewilderment. She indulged him, of course, acknowledging his gaze by sliding her free hand to his thigh even as she spoke lowly to Rian. And before she left for her morning briefings and training, Jyn turned and kissed him soft and slow and so unlike her, especially in front of the others. And Cassian watched her go, helpless to it.

“Oh shit,” Kes muttered, shoveling another spoonful of protein into his stupid mouth. “Looks like we’ve lost the Cap’n boys.”

The others laughed uproariously, agreeing that they’d lost him much sooner than that. Cassian didn’t care, he was too busy catching Jyn’s eye when she whipped her head back, blushing at having been caught out.

“Dameron?” Cassian said blankly.

“Yeah Cap?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Sure thing, Cap.”

That afternoon he was brought in to consult on a new mission, supply transport to establish good will with a new contact. Han Solo was lead, and he’d selected a very small team, one they said he was intending to make permanent. He’d need a second, a droid, a pilot, and…

Jyn.

Cassian walked into the briefing room to see Jyn deep in discussion with Leia Organa, Skywalker hovering nearby and Solo arguing with his wookie companion, as usual. Mon Mothma, Draven, and several other higher ups Cassian was used to seeing but not speaking to, were also seated at the table. Certainly, he wasn’t the last to arrive, but he was the one who brought the room to utter silence. He watched with sharp irritation as Jyn jerked her arm away from Leia and walked quickly over to him, not bothering to hide her annoyance, and the room went back to proper noise levels again. Jyn rounded on him, not looking at him, but blocking her face from the others’ view.

“I didn’t know anything until ten minutes ago…”

“That’s how he operates it seems. When do you leave?”

“First thing in the morning.”

“They should leave more time to plan.”

“They’re saying three weeks tops.”

“Which means six.”

“Or one, knowing him.”

Cassian grunted his agreement. He’d been expecting this at some point. The Alliance would be foolish to ignore Jyn’s valuable skill set for long. This was the kind of thing Saw had trained her for.

“Leia thinks he needs a babysitter,” she grumbled crossly, her eyes flicking up to meet his for the first time. He met it steadily, doing his best to mask his absolute frustration with this whole process. Somebody should have said something to him. Damn incompetent…

“He does,” Cassian agreed blankly. Jyn blinked up at him, face dropping into her former mask, all traces of the woman from his bed last night vanishing.

“So you think I should go?” she asked without emotion. Bluff. Cassian inhaled sharply.

“Captain Andor sees the logic of sending you into the field with a wild card like Solo.” He darted his gaze back to hers in just enough time to see her eyes soften, gentling. Before he got too caught up, he flicked his eyes up to the wall across from him. “Cassian, however, is fairly certain that he’s about to get his limbs torn from his body by a wookie for putting a bullet between his best friend’s eyes.” He felt her sway into him.

“Shooting Solo is _my_ job.”

“Draven, then, since this was probably his idea.”

“You can’t shoot superior officers.”

“Oh, I disagree, I am perfectly capable.”

“ _Cassian_ …” More people were filtering in, Skywalker and Leia were speaking to each other in sharp whispers, watching the pair of them closely. Solo kept glaring over at Leia and Draven looked bored by everything. There was really no time to discuss this. Cassian brought a hand up to her hip, the one blocked from the others’ view.

“What do you want to do?” he asked lowly. Jyn looked away.

“I’m not thrilled with the idea of leaving you…”

Cassian huffed, “But you’re getting antsy.”

She laughed helplessly through her nose, looking up at him, “Two weeks,” she promised.

Cassian raised his brows, “ _One_.”

“Ten days.”

“Eight.”

“Ten.”

Cassian smirked at her, “Eleven, and Solo comes back in perfect health.” Jyn opened her mouth to argue and then just gaped at him. Not shocking at all that her plan was to shorten the mission by injuring the leader. Instead, she took a step back and held her hand out to shake on it. Cassian bit back a laugh and used their clasped hands to pull her in for a short, hard kiss. He muttered _te amo_ against her lips and his suspicions were confirmed when she smiled, eyes twinkling up at him.

“So, can we get this show on the road or do you two need to go find a room?” Solo barked, throwing himself into a chair. Leia and Draven were scowling, but Skywalker looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh as he drifted over to Chewbacca’s side.

“Yeah, if you woul—” Cassian cut off Jyn’s smartass remark with a hand and smiled blandly at the room.

“My apologies. So, let’s talk about Jakku.”

 

After the meeting ended, Jyn found herself storming out of the room, adrift. She didn’t pay any attention to where Cassian was (though, he was most likely held up by the bureaucrats). Her feet took her where was most natural, most instinctual.

The armory. She’d found it not long after being released from the med bay. In fact, she found it before asking about her bunk.

Thing was, her father was a scientist, but she was raised by an anarchist. Saw and his men had taught her the ins and outs of weaponry and functional care from day one. It was her first job among their ranks, and it was the hardest habit to shake. Strip. Clean. Reassemble. It was mechanical, cathartic, productive. Saw told her that if she was too weak or unskilled to be useful, then she could maintain weapons. That’s how she felt when Cassian was still in a coma, when they wouldn’t give her an assignment, and on and on. Now, they were sending her into the field with Solo and his team. A team wholly unfamiliar to her, and without Cassian. Every bone in her body wanted to argue and stay, beg Leia to let someone else take her place. But then she saw her father’s face…she saw Bodhi and Chirruit and Baze…she saw the video of Alderaan being wiped completely from existence. And she just—

Right now, Jyn could do with a good bout of mindlessness.

Which is how Cassian found her two hours later. She was sitting at a table, field-stripping and cleaning blasters and pistols, one after the other. Cassian watched her for a long while, her easy, mechanical movements. Efficient, well-trained. That’s what war did to people like them, stole their homes and then trained them for fights that may never come. Jyn’s hands moved fast as bird’s wings, under, over, under, over, slide, wipe, draw, next.

“You just gonna stand there or are you gonna help me?” she asked gruffly, not lifting her head from her work. Cassian snorted, not surprised in the least that she was aware of his presence, even less surprised that she knew it was him watching her.

He tilted his head cheekily, eyeing the line of her curves from the angle he had, “Don’t know yet. I kind of like the view from here.”

“Ha, ha,” she tossed an oil rag at him. Cassian caught the rag easily and moved to sit next to her. He didn’t really help, but he didn’t hinder her process either. She kept moving.

“Once a soldier, always a soldier, eh?” he murmured, passing a finished blaster from her hands to the crate next to them. Jyn reached for another, but he stopped her movement gently, grabbing up her hand in his.

“Cassian…”

“We have to talk about this.”

“Why?” she asked, turning towards his shoulder, leaning heavy into his side. “Talking feels too…”

“Committed?”

“ _Final_ ,” she corrected sharply. She turned her glassy green eyes up to him, cheeks flushed, “I don’t want you to say things just because you think I might not come back.”

Cassian deflated, feeling like he’d just been socked in the gut. He reached for her, “C’mere.” Deftly, she clambered into his lap, pressing up against him and letting herself be held. “You know what I said to you last night?” She nodded silently and swung a leg around to straddle him, bury her face in his neck. Cassian supported her, drew his hands to her back to cup her thighs, squeezing. “How?” he asked quietly.

“Friend of Rian’s knows the language.”

“And you learned it.”

“Some.”

Cassian hummed, running his hands along her thighs, pulling her closer when possible. “When we talk about this, about us, we’re giving each other a reason to keep going. A reason to come back.” At this, Jyn pulled back, arms around his neck, looking him square in the eye.

“I’m _always_ coming back for you, Cassian. Talk or no talk, _te amo_ or not. I’m coming back for you.” She cupped his face in her hands, thumbs grazing his cheekbones. Cassian melted into the touch, kissing what skin he could reach. Jyn dropped her forehead to his. “Are you with me, Andor?”

Cassian lifted his lips to hers, caressing, meshing their lips gently and carefully. He could feel her heat, her eagerness, the sheer _love_ coming off her in waves. There were moments, admittedly weak ones, when he thought he’d wake to find her gone, or worse, indifferent. When he thought she’d run off to find greener, less dangerous pastures. But then he remembered these moments, remembered the sweetness she offered with no expectation of its return, remembered the smiles she kept just for him. He roughly deepened the kiss, before stopping it with quick, hard pecks that drifted down her jaw and neck.

“All the way, Erso,” he growled against her pulse, thrumming heavy and happy against his lips, proof positive of their survival, “All the kriffing way.” 

The door behind them whooshed open and they turned their heads around to see hands before they saw a face.

“Please don’t be banging, please don’t be banging,” Rian chanted, hands groping for guidance because her eyes were squeezed shut. Cassian scowled, irritated by the interruption, but Jyn laughed loud and bright.

“Quit being squeamish, you little Sithspawn,” he grumbled, leaning into the circle of Jyn’s arms. She had a hand in his hair now, casually massaging, even as she spoke with Rian, sorting out details for the rest of the day and the next. “Why do we keep her around again?” Cassian asked lowly as Rian talked faster than he could process about some conflicts among the younger female recruits.

“Because you love her,” Jyn whispered back defiantly. “And you’re actually proud of how well she’s fitting in here.” Cassian grumbled against her shoulder, pressing a kiss there, and letting himself be lulled by the hum of Rian’s voice. He didn’t argue because it was true. The kid reminded him of himself, alone in the world with more skill than sense, more anger than fear. He figured Jyn saw the same things, reached out to her because she didn’t want history repeating itself. And yeah, Cassian was extremely proud of the progress Rian was making on Yavin, that she was impressing the hell out of her superior officers, forging a reputation for herself. But Cassian was having trouble thinking about any of that because Jyn was still comfortably straddling his lap throughout the conversation.

“…but seriously, Jyn, this is shoddy work. Even I can see the residue—”

“You’re a kriffing liar, Loriann, that blaster is spotless.”

“Well if you’d remove your face from Cassian’s, you would _see_ —”

“Oye! Best watch your mouth, _reinita_ , before it gets away from you,” he snapped at her, rapping the back of her head sharply. Rian scowled and proceeded to show Jyn exactly how she was supposed to be fieldstripping blasters and side arms. Jyn looked mightily amused by it all, but Cassian continued pointing out her errors and making her correct them before continuing. All the while, Jyn sat squarely on his lap, calm and comfortable, arm slung around his neck.

Cassian couldn’t help but think that he’d done nothing to deserve this quiet moment, strange and un-domestic as it was. He’d ruined lives, hid in shadows, and nearly died dozens of times. That was not the kind of life that ended with a loving woman and a kid to be proud of. His end was supposed to be bloody and disastrous. Tragic, but quiet. Fade into nothing kind of end. Not this.

Jyn’s fingers tightened in his hair. “Stop thinking so much,” she hissed.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “Hard not to.”

Rian turned her big blue eyes on them, head cocked like a baby bird’s. “Hard not to, what?” she asked blankly, not even flinching at how close they were. Little shit. With a smirk, Cassian snatched a bolt from her grasp to the sound of her outraged shriek.

“Hard not to _despair_ of the future of the Rebellion when our newest recruits can’t even—!”

“Don’t you start again, old man!”

“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, _little girl_ , that is not how you—!”

“Just because it doesn’t make sense to an _old person_.”

“…it fits like this, you put this end in first—”

“This is starting to sound like a sex talk.”

“…and _then_ this into the back.”

“Jyn, how do you even listen to this in bed? Does he talk like this when you—?”

“Fracking hell, Rian! Cassian, do you see what you’re teaching her?”

“It’s not my fault!” they protested in unison, pointing at one another. “He (she) started it!”


	3. Chapter 3

He’d been right, as usual. Having those conversations, not shying away from what they were becoming gave Jyn _ample_ reason to come back safely. And quickly. She held to the original agreement, that Solo come back unharmed, but she did it in 6 days instead of eleven and she got herself stabbed in the arm. Solo reported back that Sergeant Erso seemed to favor a more _direct_ approach in problem solving, and he’d be more than happy to have her on his team again. Cassian didn’t like the implications, so he didn’t ask.

Months and months later, they’d both been out on their fair share of missions and come back, to the point that they were settling into a routine. When she came back, they went straight to bed because her adrenaline was up and raging and Cassian could be sent out at any time. When he came back, they spent most of the evening in the mess with the others to let Cassian acclimate to being himself again. His missions were typically longer, more mentally draining, and it took more than just a quick fuck to get back to neutral.

Which was how he found himself listening to some of the younger officers talk about their conquests and the women they were interested in bedding on Yavin. They were cocky little bantha shits, for certain, grossly exaggerating their offworld stories in order to impress the others. Cassian had plenty of his own stories, mostly work-related, and nothing about it was glamorous. He didn’t argue with them though, just let them continue on while his eyes tracked Jyn across the room. She was hopping between three different groups, chattering, but definitely knew where he was and was keeping tabs. He knew this because she always stayed within a clear line of sight, not only for her benefit, but for his as well. She liked playing that game with him sometimes. Rian was within one of her groups, so he didn’t have to worry about keeping track of both. Purposely done, probably.

“…and _that’s_ my opening with her. I’ll just go up and—” the blond first lieutenant Tenwick was boasting. Cassian set his drink down.

“ _Perdon_? Opening?”

All five sets of eyes swiveled to look at him.

“Yeah,” Tenwick continued, confused that Cassian wasn’t hanging on his every word. “She always goes for a swim before breakfast. I figured—”

“You figured you’d show up randomly one morning claiming that you couldn’t go during your usual time and how fortuitous is it that she is there as well?” Tenwick confirmed eagerly, the others nodding their heads. “You’re an idiot.”

The men erupted. “What? No! That’s a _perfect_ plan!” They were all protesting, explaining why it would work, but Cassian kept waving them off.

“Do you actually like this woman or are you looking for one night?” Tenwick froze as the eyes swiveled to him. He sat up ramrod straight, blushing a little. Oh, to be so young and so very stupid. “Women are not fooled by boys playing games, my friends. They are not so easily tricked. She will think one of two things: one, this man is stupid and wasting my time or two, this man wants to sleep with me once and nothing else. And maybe both.”

“So, what do you recommend old timer?” one of the others asked disdainfully, obviously unaware of Cassian’s attachments. “Woo her with flowers and poetry?”

Cassian snorted, “No, you’d look like an idiot.” He twisted around in the bench, eyes immediately landing on Jyn, who was alerted to the slightest flick of his beckoning hand. Without interrupting her conversation by looking at him, she ended it smoothly and high-fived a member of her team before sidling over to them. Unprompted, she hopped the low back of the booth to land in Cassian’s lap, sliding an arm around his neck for balance. The other men were a combination of confused and awestruck. (Jyn Erso was still a name whispered respectfully around the base, to some she was more of a hero than Skywalker or Leia Organa.)

“ _Mi amor_ , what was the first thing you noticed about me?” he asked loudly enough for the others to hear. She eyed him skeptically for a moment, trying to read his expression, but then her eyes lit up with mischief and he knew he was screwed (figuratively and literally). She ducked to whisper in his ear, pressing her body up against his, her hand trailing down his chest to his hip, and gave him an answer that would make even Han Solo blush. Jyn leaned back and cocked a brow at him challengingly, lips rolled in a smirk. Cassian half-heartedly scowled.

“That was _not_ the first thing,” he argued lowly. Cassian could tell that the others were locked in on this conversation, watching the pair of them with heightened interest. But Jyn just watched him gleefully for a moment before licking her lips and turning to the others. She swiped Cassian’s drink and leaned back against his shoulder.

“Which one?” she asked him, not acknowledging that the men could probably speak for themselves.

“Tenwick.”

“Who’s the woman?”

Cassian arched an inquiring brow at Tenwick who answered immediately, tripping over himself.

“Erin Bolen.”

Jyn hummed, finishing Cassian’s drink. “Pretty, much smarter than you. I’ve seen her on the mats. Good technique, doesn’t use her size to her advantage…”

“Jyn.”

“Right.” She slammed down the glass and settled back against Cassian, playing with his hair. “Two things. First, buy her drink, tell her she looks nice, and walk away.”

“Walk away?” Tenwick spluttered.

“S’what I said, isn’t it?” she snapped. “Second. She helps with lessons and childcare for the little ones and orphans we pick up along the way. Take an interest. Offer to help.”

“But—”

“You want the girl? Offer to help.” She turned her head to talk lowly to Cassian. “And if you want your girl, you had best get us out of this conversation right about now.”

“Right!” Cassian agreed, getting to his feet, half bringing her with him. She chuckled, letting her feet drop to the ground. “Here’s advice from an old timer, boys, always ask a woman.” He grabbed up her waist, pulling her along with him towards the door, until one of the men called out.

“Hey! You never told us what you noticed first about the captain!”

Jyn let out a bright laugh, grip tightening around him.

“He let me keep my blaster!”

 

*

Cassian walked briskly down the corridor towards the site of the incident he was charged with investigating. Kampe was a relatively inconsequential planet with the Galactic Empire, but like Scarif, it housed a lot of data. And rebels were always trying to get information from there. So when there was a disturbance reported near the main entrance from the hangar, everyone was sent to investigate. Cassian would have hung back, but the disturbance reeked of Solo, so he really had no choice. And he really wasn’t looking forward to whatever team decided coming through the front door was a good idea.

That is, until he saw a familiar form and gait walking towards him. A familiar form and gait walking towards him in an Imperial Officer’s uniform. Except this one tossed her hat and smiled brightly at him.

“Hey, baby,” Jyn purred, and she threw her arms around his neck to kiss him thoroughly. Cassian responded enthusiastically, but cut it short.

“Wait where’s—?” He was cut off simultaneously by Jyn’s smirk and Han Solo’s battle cry as he charged down the hallway with two blasters in hand, Chewbacca at his side, and a squad of Imperial soldiers chasing after them. Cassian watched them pass with no small amount of incredulity, but Jyn just smiled up at him, eyes not wavering from his face.

“Creating a diversion,” she answered sunnily. She kissed him hard and quick again before she moved to the secure door behind him. Right as she reached into her bag, probably for a device to crack the security code, Cassian stepped ahead of her.

“Oh no, please, allow me.” As he typed in the code, Jyn leaned flirtatiously against the door jam with a smile. When the doors opened, he smiled back at her.

“Thanks, baby,” she smirked and tossed a concussion grenade into the room.

“De nada, mi amor. You know, I could have just ordered them out.”

She shrugged as the grenade went off. There were three sharp shouts. “More fun this way.”

“How is Rian doing?” he asked.

“Sulking.” As the smoke escaped into the corridor, they entered the data center together, and shot out the cameras in tandem.

“She wanted to come, didn’t she?” he asked.

Jyn tossed her bag onto the console and leaned up against it as he went to type in his passcode. “Yes. But I think she just misses you.” She bobbled her head a bit. “And she’s bored.” Cassian only hummed and continued typing.

“What do you need?”

She whirled around to examine the files he’d pulled up, “You, a bed behind locked doors, and a couple bottles of rye,” she answered with whimsical seriousness. He snorted even as she pointed to three different folders. “This, this, and this. _But_ ,” she reached into her bag and pulled out a compact. “Take the lot so they don’t know our targets.”

“God _damn_ , I love you,” he mumbled, creating copies of the entire database. “This will take at least eight minutes, though.”

“Oh, trust me,” Jyn murmured, perching a hip on the console, “We’ll have plenty of time.”

“How can you be sure?”

She didn’t answer, however. Instead, she reached for her blaster and shot down an Imperial soldier heading at a fast pace into the room.

“Hey!” Han bellowed, shortly behind the now dead soldier, “I had him!” But Jyn only shrugged and holstered her weapon. Han grumbled about insubordinate, crazy-ass... “We’ve got ten minutes before they figure out I locked a whole squad in the lavatory without their comms, so you better hurry it up!” he barked at her.

“Of course, _sir_. Although, if I may say so, _sir_ , coming in through the wrong door and having to improvise a diversion while jeopardizing an intelligence officer’s cover makes it a little difficult to complete a mission efficiently,” she answered blankly with the glaring exception of, “ _Sir_.” He was about to blow up at her when Cassian interrupted.

“I thought you said you were going to try and get along with him,” he said quietly, earning all of Jyn’s attention, even though Chewy came through the door, wailing loud enough to get the attention of the whole facility.

“Who said I wasn’t trying?” she deadpanned, _trying_ being the operative word. Han and Chewy were arguing back and forth now, and then a look of realization took over Han’s face.

“What do you _mean_ you forgot to lock the door!?!” He grabbed Chewy by the sash and dragged him out of the room arguing and shooting at whoever approached them. Jyn nabbed the strays.

“You have to admit,” Cassian said folding his arms over his chest while looking up at Jyn, “He has a certain ehm…eh style?” Jyn scowled at him even as she shot a soldier that passed by the door.

“I hate him.”

“Hate’s a strong word, Erso!” Han growled coming back through the door with Chewy in tow. Then he stood up straight and winked at her. “Besides, you know you think I’m charming.”

“I have no idea what Leia sees in him,” Jyn admitted, ignoring Han completely. But he interrupted Cassian’s response anyway.

“Wait…Leia sees something in me?” he asked with a grin, helping Chewy drag in the dead soldiers, shutting the door, and arming it. Jyn pulled a face.

_See what I mean?_

And Cassian responded in kind, lifting his brows.

“I concede your point.” Jyn smiled brightly at him, her eyes lighting up with all the adoration her little body could muster. Cassian harshly regretted that they weren’t alone.

“Didn’t know you had it in you to smile like that, Erso,” Han ribbed as he and the wookie reloaded their munitions with what they’d taken off the soldiers littering the floor. Jyn didn’t bother looking away from Cassian, who smirked flirtatiously at her for it.

“Not for you, _sir_.”

Cassian continued as if they hadn’t been interrupted. “So, I was thinking,” he slipped a hand around her hip, “these infiltration jobs are getting a bit…messy. It’s a young man’s game.”

They completely ignored Han and Chewy’s disruptive bickering, choosing to stare at each other and sway in closer instead.

“Messy?” she echoed quietly.

“Oh yes, I think I definitely prefer recruitment in the Core.”

She let out a shaky breath as his thumb slipped under her jacket and shirt. “Thought they said you couldn’t go back in without a partner?”

He nodded, eyes lighting up, “That’s _precisely_ what I was thinking about.” She cocked her head at him, very obviously intrigued. “Well, a certain class of very influential people have been closed off to us because they typically don’t permit unsavory types into their inner circles.”

Jyn pushed up against him, “And what would be the _savory_ types?” A bolt of heat shot through him as he very obviously reacted to her heightened proximity to his person. He flared his nostrils hard to get in as much air as possible to steady himself.

“ _Ohhh_!” Han interrupted again, “I get it now. You two are—hey if I wanted your input I’d ask for it! And then I’d shoot my own foot for asking _you_ for an opinion!” Thankfully, Jyn didn’t bother responding to that either, didn’t bother taking her eyes off him. So Cassian continued.

“You know, respectable types. Family men. Fathers.” He bit his lip, feeling his whole face soften. “Husbands.”

There was a crash outside. “Four minutes!” Han called out, still prepping their bags and grabbing what he could, uniforms and all. Jyn stared up at Cassian, eyes wide and darkened. He could feel her breathing quicken, her pulsed thumped too rapidly.

“Are you offering me a position?”

“Are you saying you’d accept?”

“I’m not that great an actor.”

“I’m not asking you to act.”

“Three minutes!”

Jyn stiffened. “You’d—?”

Cassian smiled hopefully. “What do you say, Erso? You want to get married, adopt an orphan, and help me take the Galactic Empire down piece by piece?”

“Two minutes!” The console beeped, and Cassian swiped the compact even as Jyn pulled him in to kiss the hell out of him.

“We’re gonna have company soon, kids!”

“Sir? Shut up and quit ruining my proposal or I will shoot you.”

“Duly noted!” Geared up as an Imperial soldier, he opened the door as if to escort Chewy to a holding cell and stood calmly out in the corridor. Jyn and Cassian quickly packed up their things.

“When are you leaving?”

“You didn’t answer me.”

She rolled her eyes and kissed him again. “ _Idiot_.”

He just shook his head at her. “Looks like I’m leaving now. They’ll lock down the base after you’ve gone.” He held up a finger. “By the way,” he pulled out a datapad and handed it to her. “Thorough directions to the hangar with a ready ship, security codes, and a valid call sign. It’s the quickest way out.”

She whirled back to the console. “And you,” her fingers flew over the keys, “will be right behind us.” She sighed with contentment when she turned back to him. “You, ensign, have orders from on high to patrol the northern hills where we just so happened to park our ship.”

Cassian laughed, “How fortuitous.”

“I think so.”

“We are out of time, folks!” Han called in. She kissed him hard and quick again and smirked.

“If I beat you back to base, you have to do that thing I asked you to do in the hangar,” she announced, smacking his chest and walking out backwards, keeping her eyes locked on him.

“And what If I beat you?” he argued.

Jyn just lifted her brows, her grin manic and her eyes gleaming.

“Race ya.”

And then she was off, running down the corridor with Han Solo and his wookie friend. Cassian took off in the other direction.

He was _definitely_ beating them back to Hoth.


End file.
